Thursday, May 24, 2007

Khaleej Times OnlineA Pakistani mullah whose mosque is holding two policemen hostage has warned President Pervez Musharraf that a Taleban-style opposition movement is emerging to challenge his already crisis-hit regime.... Baton-waving students from Islamabad’s pro-Taleban Red Mosque seized the police six days ago, adding to the pressure on Musharraf amid a groundswell of violent anger at his suspension of the country’s top judge.

Just what we need. Baton-waving students controlling Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of two brothers heading the mosque, said his followers backed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and predicted the political upheaval would further the students’ goal of a pure Islamic state. ‘If the government tries to suppress the change that our movement is demanding, then there is a likelihood of Talebanisation,’ the 43-year-old Ghazi said. ‘I can see it happening.’

Exactly what is the difference between a "pure Islamic state" and Talibanisation?

.... ‘We know that if Musharraf goes away, another Musharraf would come instead. The system we want is an Islamic system.’

Where clerics dominate the people rather than an Army General.

.... Ghazi said the Red Mosque students mostly come from the tribal areas of Pakistan,

Source of the Taleban

the lawless regions bordering with Afghanistan where the Taleban and Al Qaeda have taken refuge since the September 11, 2001 attacks..... The mosque recently set up its own Islamic court, which issued a fatwa against a female minister who embraced a French paragliding instructor after a charity jump.

An innocent hug.

They have also launched anti-vice street patrols, targeting music shops and brothels, and occupied a children’s library in protest against the demolition of mosques that the government said were built illegally.

Occupying a children's library is a sure way to show how peaceful you are.

Ghazi’s brother, Abdul Aziz, threatened last month to unleash ‘thousands’ of suicide bombers if the government attempted a crackdown. A senior Pakistani security official said that suicide bombers are being trained inside the seminary.

What is there about these nutcases that thinks they can accomplish anything by blowing themselves and other innocent people up?

‘Suicide bombers are being prepared with the help of CDs and instruction manuals as well as inspirational films showing Iraqi insurgents fighting against UN forces,’ he told AFP.... ‘Pakistan has become more secular since when my father was a cleric at the Red Mosque,’ he said. ‘This is our reaction. We want to go back.’